Excuses. Everyone is full of them today. “I don’t have time!” “I don’t have the money!” “I would, but John Doe tried it and it didn’t work out for him.” These are just a few of the excuses I hear on a daily basis and it makes me sick. It literally turns my stomach every time someone comes up with an excuse on why they can’t accomplish something. How about instead of focusing on why you can’t do something, let’s come up with some solutions on how you can?

Unfortunately, for most of us, its our first instinct to want to come up with an excuse and backdown when we feel there’s a challenge ahead of us. I know this from first hand experience. There was a point in time when I felt that if something was too much of a challenge, I would just ignore it or come up with an excuse to avoid it. This was a problem. This was a problem, because not only did I not hold myself accountable; I still expected the same results as if I were to face the challenge head on. Call it fear of failure, call it laziness, call it entitlement, call it whatever you want. I call it stupidity. Why would anyone in their right mind think that they can be rewarded or benefit from doing absolutely nothing outside of standard expectations?

The same opportunities to succeed are available to everyone. When I say everyone, I mean EVERYONE. Sure, everyone’s path is unique in order to achieve success, but the bottom line is that the path is there for you to take. Only you can determine where that path leads. It all starts with the decisions that you make as an individual and how often you incorporate personal accountability into those decisions.

Starting today, take a step back and become more aware of the decisions that you’re making. Then, instead of coming up with an excuse about why something didn’t work out the way you had hoped, come up with some scenarios about how you personally could have done something different to generate an alternative outcome. If the conclusion is that a mistake was made, own it, learn from it, put it in the past and try again.

I can guarantee you that if you follow the thought process I just laid out, it will change your life and make you feel better about yourself as a person. When you feel better about yourself as a person, thats when you’re at your highest level of productivity. When you’re at your highest level of productivity, you’re naturally putting in the work to create a foundation for you to achieve the goals that you set for yourself.

Over the next few days, I challenge you to try following this thought process in your daily interactions (personal and/or business). Then, I want you to come back here and re-read this blog and share your thoughts.